Manisha Anjali
Friend to Flowers and Animals, Mala Improvisation and The Ecstasy of the Sea draw from the wandering spirit of Lalla, a 14th century Kashmiri mystic and saint who walked the earth with no clothes on. She renounced all material life and was devoted to Shiva, and had immense poetic influence in Shavaism and Sufism. In Lalla’s poetry for Shiva, the lines between eroticism and devotion were blurred.
Friend to Flowers and Animals and The Ecstasy of the Sea are rooted in the eroticism of nature ⸺ devotion to earth as the ultimate form of devotion. Mala Improvisation is an excerpt from Flower Improvisation, initially improvised for the welcoming of ancestral spirits, after seeing a vision of a woman with a sickle and a parrot. The erotic in the vision is demonstrated in the solitude and euphoria of the woman with the sickle. Spontaneous composition and improvisation of these pieces evoke the instinctive, visceral trajectories of those whose lovers were bodies of water, celestial beings, supernatural entities and gods.
Friend to Flowers and Animals, Mala Improvisation and The Ecstasy of the Sea are offerings to renunciation, freedom and the spirit of Lalla.
Friend to Flowers and Animals
Mala Improvisation
The Ecstasy of the Sea
Scene 1 ⸺ ‘Palm Tree Sun Worship’ Sunrise. Amber sky turns blue. A palm tree on a cliff faces the sea. Sun is above the horizon line.
[voice over with subtitles]
I hear the sounds of paradise from the future.
Scene 2 ⸺ ‘No Clothes Recitation’ Lalla stands in the middle of the sea naked. A baby snake crawls out of her mouth, and down her body, and into the sea. Sun in the middle of the blue sky.
[voice over with subtitles]
I no longer wear clothes when I walk in the sea. I no longer wear clothes when I walk in the sea. I no longer wear clothes in the fire time. I no longer wear clothes in the snake time.
Scene 3 ⸺ ‘Blue Fire, Green Sea’ Lalla floats in the sea with her eyes closed. She holds a burning blue flame in her hands. Sun and moon in the sky at the same time.
[voice over with subtitles]
I speak my stream of consciousness to the longing of the waves. The thirst is represented by a blue flame. Fire thirsts for water. Fire and water can dissipate in ecstasy when their fork-tongues finally meet. I mount a birthmark to the small of my waist. I knead crocodile-shaped omens into the water. I travel backwards to the time of the rains. I have no human lover. I have no buffalo lover. I am in love with the sea.
Scene 3 ⸺ ‘The First Dream’ Two palms hold red flowers in the sea waves.
[voice over with subtitles]
Three-headed Demon Lover at the Mouth of the Mirror. Leaving the Mouth. Entering the Deep. Entering the Blue. Leaving the Red. Leaving the Mouth. Demon Lover looking into the Mirror. Three Instruments of Ecstasy.
Scene 4 ⸺ ‘The Second Dream’ Two palms hold blue flowers in the sea waves.
[voice over with subtitles]
Everything is a curly snake. Each memory. Each wave. One hundred 2-D paper snakes are swimming in my water curtains. My two braids are snakes wrapped around my neck. They are crawling up my legs and into my water baskets. They are licking me from the inside. My oysters fall into the deep mirror. I am licking them from the outside.
Scene 5 ⸺ ‘The Third Dream’ Two palms hold yellow flowers in the sea waves.
[voice over with subtitles]
I am in a cottage floating on water. I rub flowers on my lips. Your face changes into a new face. I am stuck in the dream world. I have been here for thousands of years. You are in my house. I wanted to love you. So I took the face of somebody you knew. We talk for one thousand hours about your birth and death and the ways that beings move through different states of consciousness to experience each other. The telephone is ringing. The telephone is a sea-shell. I hear the sounds of paradise from the future.
Scene 5 ⸺ ‘Invocation of the Ecstasy of the Sea’ Pink sky. Lalla looks out at the sea. Lalla brushes her long black hair. Sun goes down below the horizon line.
[voice over with subtitles]
Put the blindfold on.
Lunar Eclipse.
Take it off.
Sunrise.
Put the blindfold on.
Comet.
Now take it off.
Luminous Moon.
Take off your rings.
Give them to the sea.
Take off your clothes.
Give them to the sea.
Take off your illusions.
Give them to the sea.
